-- Soups --

February 19, 2015

Thank you so much to all of you who have left comments or sent emails about our 7th Blogiversary post. You guys are the absolute best! We've had the most amazing time reading through all your sweet thoughts about The Bitten Word.

One thing that especially struck us was how many people commented on our musings about how one day we'll probably stop writing this blog. Don't worry: we're not going anywhere.

And how could we, when we've got dishes like this Moroccan Lamb Stew that we need to talk about with you?

January 15, 2015

It's that time of year when we look into our pantry and think, "Who in the world bought all this stuff?" You see, our cupboards right now are a bit like the island of misfit toys.

There are six kinds of mustard. Three kinds of anchovies. Seven (!) kinds of nuts. And so. much. orzo. Someone needs a Cupboard Cleanout.

Though we love digging into our cupboard and making a complete meal out of it, we found this week that there are perils to doing that. Sometimes, the stuff in your pantry is just too old.

Case in point? We planned to make this Spanish Chorizo, Kale and Cranberry Bean Soup, a Bobby Flay recipe from the current issue of Food Network Magazine. We thought it sounded delicious, and we were especially happy because it would be a good excuse to use some beans we already had on hand.

November 05, 2014

Last weekend we hosted our annual Fakesgiving dinner. It was our biggest one yet: 24 diners (packed into our tiny apartment!), 20 dishes (the most ever!), for 10 hours (we kid you not: The first guests arrived at 2:30 p.m. and the last ones left at 12:30 a.m.).

We started things off with this soup. But truth be told, we're not sure soup or salad really belongs at the Thanksgiving table. What say you, Bittens?

In our view, Thanksgiving is already a big meal. There are copious dishes, mounds of stuffing, meat galore. An early or extra soup or salad course seems superfluous.

But we can see reasons for doing it. Perhaps you're having a very fancy Thanksgiving meal for a small group, where everyone is wearing a monocle while eating foie gras-laced turkey.

Or, you can use a soup or salad the way we do: as a stalling tactic. Sometimes on Thanksgiving you just need to buy yourself a bit of time while that turkey comes up to temperature and you juggle dishes through your oven in an attempt to get everything hot. We know; we've been there.

So if you're going to go the soup route, we think you'll do well by serving this Curred Carrot and Apple Soup at your big meal.

February 14, 2014

It's Valentine's Day, and, sadly, for those of you with a sweet tooth, we have no chocolate on offer.

We do, however, have broccoli -- obviously the most romantic of all the cruciferous vegetables. (Take that, bok choy!)

More germane to this recipe, this is a snowy Valentine's in our nation's capital. It's been a cold, wet, snowy winter so far. And that's had us in soup mode. Which is partly why we wanted to make this Sesame-Ginger Broccoli Soup from Vegetarian Times.

Turns out Margie's squash were extremely productive. So at the end of August, Margie asked if we'd like to have one. Would we? Of course! Margie's daughter kindly dropped off a big ol' winter squash on our doorstep so we could play around with it.

Big is the operative word here. Here's a look at the squash itself. Want to guess how much it weighs?

September 13, 2013

If you'll allow us to quote a certain dog-show mockumentary, "We both love soup. And we love ... talking, and not talking.... We could not talk or talk forever, and still find things to not talk about."

This seems like one of those times when it's best for us to not talk.

Instead, let's hear what today's group of Cover to Cover cooks thought about their soup dishes. We've got a Creamy White Onion Soup and two Asian soup dishes: a Thai chicken coconut soup and a Shoyu Ramen. We thought the ramen would be a particularly challenging dish in terms of ingredient sourcing and prep. But Team Ramen totally rose to the challenge!

We do want to note one comment from one of today's reader-chefs that really made us chuckle, mostly because it sounds exactly like something we would do ourselves. Judi, one of the cooks who tried the White Onion Soup, wrote that the dish had "elegant flavors mixed perfectly to create a sophisticated, rich taste sensation. ... And we immediately went to the restaurant's website to see what they charged for this dish."

June 17, 2013

Chilled soups are a rite of summer. Or at least a rite of summer issues of food magazines. They show up every June, just as predictable as daylilies.

We're fans. We love the idea of a cold soup as a refreshing way to start a summer meal.

The problem is flavor. Served piping hot, soups are a swirl of heady flavors -- aromas of vegetables, meat and spices rising seductively from the bowl. But cold soups have a, well, chilling effect on flavor. It's just harder to pack flavor into a cold bowl of soup.

Could this Chilled Fennel and Cucumber Soup from Fine Cooking pass the flavor test?

May 08, 2013

These words were uttered in our kitchen halfway through making this Piquant Radish Soup with Crème Fraîche.

It's true, right? Doesn't it sound a bit sad? Like something your grandparents had to eat during the depression? (Though we expect our grannies would have ditched the crème fraîche for a big ol' dollop of full fat sour cream.)

Still, we were eager to try the recipe. After reading our first issue of Vegetarian Times, the first recipe we tried -- Miso-Glazed Cauliflower and Kale Salad -- was a huge success in our book. For the next recipe, we went for something a bit more unique.

And radish soup sounded like just the kind of unique we wanted. Radishes are plentiful right now in our area, with nearly every vendor at the farmers market offering some variety of radishes. And though we've roasted radishes and used them all varieties of salads, we have not yet tried them in liquid form.

So we purchased a few bunches of radishes, broke out the food processor and got to work.

June 29, 2012

Sunday was Clay's birthday, and when we went to the Farmers Market that morning, there was a special treat: Fresh sweet corn made its first appearance of the year. Because really, who doesn't want corn for their birthday?

We were excited to see the corn, not only because we love to eat it, but also because we'd been waiting to share this recipe with you. Months ago, we developed this recipe for Chilled Sweet Corn Soup for Spenser Magazine, an online food publication that had reached out to us. In the most recent issue, they ran a Q&A with us that was accompanied by this recipe.

We're also very excited to share with you what's coming up in Spenser, which is a feature story we wrote about a rather adventurous weekend we had a little more than a month ago. That's all we'll say for now, but we'll leave you with this corn soup.

We rarely tire of just eating corn straight off the cob, but when we do, we make a simple corn soup just like this one that not only helps beat the summer heat, but also showcases the flavor of the corn itself.